Homeschool - Day 6 - Tues, Sept 9, 2008

Activity: Again, Shayla drew horizontal and vertical lines to make a page into 4ths. I told her to draw #6 in the top left box and make 6 apples. She was hesitant and said she couldn't draw very well. I encouraged her to try her best. She did and I praised her for trying.

Read aloud/music: Shayla had asked to do Playtime Devotions a song/fingerplay book the prior day. I promised, but never got to it, so we did it this morning.

Math: Shayla counted to 100 with ease today. She used my pen to point to each number as she counted. Next, she put flash cards in order 1-10. Then she added the correct number of buttons around the flashcard. She struggled with a few numbers. I was surprised that she couldn't do this with ease. We'll do this again tomorrow to make sure she understands. Maybe it was just a bad day? I gave Shayla a piece of manuscript paper and demonstrated how to make a #1. She had a difficult time following directions. She did not make the 1's from the top line to the bottom line consistently, despite repeated directions. She was not being silly - it was like she couldn't remember! I drew dots on the top line and bottom line. She drew her 1 in between of the dots. She did fine this way. We'll definately be practicing!

She completed Sheepish Shepherd page 170.

Social Studies: One of the GS badges dealt with communities. I bought a magnet board with different people and store fronts. Shayla had fun creating scenes. We told a story about each scene she created (language).

Reading: Shayla used a card game to match upper and lower case letters. She then counted them (math). I let Shayla use my pen as a pointer again and had her recite the alphabet song using the chart. She stumbled a few times, so we'll review again tomorrow.

Completed Sea Search pg. 256 - identifying upper and lower case letters

We completed the Student Survey on pgs 26-27 of the Sept. Idea Book - we did this exercise orally. I was surprised at some of her answers. They were all appropriate and on task, just surprising. I'll have to use her answers as a tool to teach!

Grammar and Writing: We did not follow the curriculum. It advised copying all the lowercase letters. That would be WAY too much! Instead I had Shayla do page 8 of A Reason for Handwriting - K. It was tracing dotted bubbles. She had to follow the arrows to trace the bubbles. Again, she did not follow directions of consistently starting on the green dot and tracing the way the arrow pointed even after being constantly reminded. It's like she just doesn't listen or remember! Then I wrote her name on manuscript paper. I had her trace her name. Then I helped her write her name with hand-over-hand assistance, telling how to form each letter. On the third line, I turned her loose. It was maybe just a tad better than previous attempts.

Shayla is really wanting to learn to read and write. She is putting the pressure on herself, but she's just not demonstrating the abilities needed to begin.

In order to encourage writing I bought a small dry erase board with lines similar to manuscript paper. Shayla took this outside and practiced making c's and d's, then just doodling while I hung laundry outside. I've noticed she does much better with short play breaks between the hard tasks.

Imaginative play: Shayla played with her new magnet shapes/magnet board. She made some interesting pictures.

Music & Movement: We started using the days of the week and weather charts that I bought today. I showed her how to "read" the day/weather by the first letter sound. Then, we spelled out the days and weather. I taught her the days of the week in Spanish and the ASL signs for the days. (foreign language). Then, we sang Dr. Jean's Days of the Week song in English (with signs and without and in Spanish. We also did several other Dr. Jean all time favorites. Some of these were done while bouncing on the exercise ball!

Sorry for no pictures today! I promise we'll have more tomorrow.

Does anyone have any ideas for handwriting?